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drug investigations.
Using State Police radio equipment makes communication between the officers easier. “In the past, each county had different radio equipment, and you couldn’t talk to each other,” Clarke said. Now, the Statewide Interdepartmental Radio System (SIRS) allows officers from all jurisdictions to communicate with each other and with the dispatch center in any county.
Since working undercover is more difficult in small towns where everybody tends to know everybody else, officers from other jurisdictions in the task force will be able to assist with such investigations. “It does give you some new faces you can use,” said Clarke.
Sheriff Woodward said that all the officers assigned to the task force will be sworn as state law enforcement agents, giving them powers of arrest throughout the Commonwealth. It is possible, the sheriff said, that some personnel may be “swapped” with similar task forces operating in other regions of the state, allowing even more “unknown faces” to be used.
Rappahannock County will contribute one officer to the task force, Sheriff Woodward said, although he declined to identify the deputy. The county’s Board of Supervisors authorized the sheriff to hire an extra deputy last month, freeing one of his “seasoned” officers for task force duty.
Since the task force just recently began, it hasn’t made
96.5%